Building Local Power

In our new season of Building Local Power, The City Series, we take a tour of cities and towns across the U.S. and talk to guests who are working to make their communities more locally self-reliant. Independent business owners, elected city officials, and community leaders explain how their work is moving the needle toward a more just, sustainable, and democratic future. Upcoming Cities: Detroit Washington, D.C. Baltimore If you want your city to be a focus in an upcoming season, send an email to buildinglocalpower@ilsr.org.

Local initiatives are resisting profit-driven mergers by mobilizing their communities and building robust local economies. … Read More

Communities nationwide proactively address food security by opening grocery stores that adopt innovative ownership, access, and governance approaches. … Read More

Sparklight monopolization of East Carroll Parrish prompts leaders to build a fiber-to-the-home network for fast, affordable Internet. … Read More

From the Capitol to K Street, a Wisconsin native finds a home at Consumer Reports advocating for broadband access and affordability. … Read More

The Permian Basin, the largest producing oil field in the United States, is located in Texas. JP Morgan is a major shareholder of the Permian Basin and in 2019, through its affiliate, Infrastructure Investment Fund (IIF), successfully acquired the El Paso Electric utility company. The utility is responsible for powering the city and operates three significant gas plants that convert fracked gas into electricity, and JP Morgan saw the acquisition of El Paso Electric as a lucrative opportunity to amplify their profits from the oil and gas industry. Amanacer People’s Project saw it differently. They saw the proposed acquisition of El Paso Electric as a direct threat to climate justice. Despite unsuccessfully blocking the acquisition, Miguel Escoto from Amanacer is optimistic about the region’s prospects for transitioning to democratic control over our energy grid. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

A determined coalition fights to block a private takeover of the state’s largest utility. … Read More

A NYC composter fights to fend off Wall Street and invest in the land and her community. … Read More

An environmental lawyer and activist calls bigness the most pressing issue in the waste industry. … Read More

A brewer details the importance of creativity, community, and empowerment in the male-dominated brewing industry and highlights the struggles faced by smaller breweries. … Read More

Our new season shatters the deceptive facade often employed by merging companies that claim their consolidation will benefit consumers.… Read More

Chris Noble, Director of Organizing at Health Access, and Allison Hardt, Community Development Director at T1 International, share their personal experiences accessing life-saving medication in America. Stacy Mitchell delves into the hidden world of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — their role in the pharmaceutical industry and how their practices hinder people like Chris and Allison from obtaining essential medicines at reasonable prices.… Read More

Kay Eady and Ry Marcattilio dive into the lack of broadband access in the rural South, shedding light on the consequences it holds for individuals seeking telehealth services.… Read More

Rose Thelen shares her story of working with the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign and successfully mobilizing hundreds of concerned residents in an effort to shut down the Minnesota Sherco coal-fired power plant. Tyson Slocum joins the second half of the episode to discuss how private equity firms across the country have been acquiring and sustaining coal plants like the ones Rose is fighting against.… Read More

Jasmine Harris, a Louisville Tenant Organizer, turned to activism after her roof started caving in to ensure that every resident in Louisville has safe and affordable housing. Tara Raghuveer, Executive Director of Kansas City Tenants, discusses how private equity firms exploit the housing market and government reforms to protect tenants' rights.… Read More

In this episode of Building Local Power, three community composters detail how the biggest challenge in developing their program is funding. Jessica Toth joins the second half of the episode to outline how the very people implementing solutions to lessen our carbon footprint — while providing jobs and education in a circular food system — are underfunded.… Read More

Twenty-five years ago, there were over 2,000 commercial shrimp boats in Mississippi. Today, that number has fallen to around 200. This trend is not unique to Mississippi: Across U.S. coastlines, commercial fisherfolk are seeing their way of life disappear.… Read More

The rapid consolidation of agriculture across the U.S. has obliterated many small and mid-size farms and has posed monumental challenges for small farmers and consumers alike. On this episode, an onion farmer tells his story of how small and mid-size farmers across the country are going extinct. Sarah Carden weaves his story with the necessary policy decisions to build a more equitable farming system. … Read More

Aaron Johnson, founder and owner of Oasis Fresh Market in North Tulsa, Oklahoma, tells his journey of opening a grocery store to provide a refuge, safe place, and shelter to a community that had been a food desert for fourteen years. On the second half of the episode, Stacy Mitchell explains the policy decisions that have led to an increasingly consolidated grocery sector and the steps to take to support locally-owned, community-centric grocery models. … Read More

Dr. Perryman, a life-long Toledo resident, tells his story of leading a religious, social, and political movement to empower his community and fight against dollar store proliferation. Kennedy Smith weaves Dr. Perryman's story into the national fight against dollar stores. She notes the harms that dollar stores inflict as well as the strategies communities can use to battle them. … Read More